The “Savoy Conference,” which pitted twelve Anglican bishops against twelve Puritan and presbyterian divines, was empaneled by King Charles for four months. They were to spend April to July, 1661, examining the Book of Common Prayer and "make such changes as to bring it into conformity with the most ancient Liturgies which have been used in the Church…” Neither side was to comply with the King’s command.
The Puritans and their presbyterian allies laid their plan out when the Conference began. Their solution was to abolish the Prayer Book (as they’d done under the Lord Protector) and replace it with an “approved and truly reformed” set of services. The most eminent of their number, Richard Baxter, was to compose a service for the celebration of the Eucharist. Baxter would show the Bishops what a “truly reformed” rite looked like. When he brought it to the Conference, however, the Puritans began arguing over it. None of Baxter’s confreres liked it; they refused to approve it, and they spent weeks telling him why. The Anglican bishops smiled, kept their opinions to themselves and let the Puritans and presbyterians picnic on each other.
Baxter’s Communion Service died stillborn. The Puritan Commissioners, realizing they had nothing to offer in place of the Book of Common Prayer, renewed their objections to the Book itself. These objections (which they called “exceptions”) fell into three categories: theological, linguistic, and ceremonial. Their “General Exceptions” were theological: the Church of England was “but the Romish Church disguised and unreformed.” The Prayer Book embodied the “undoing of the principal doctrines and godly teachings of the Protestant Reformers.” The Puritan Commissioners would show that the doctrines of Rome were “in mystick ways hidden” in the words and ceremonies of the Prayer Book.
Noting the affection many Anglicans had for the First Prayer Book of 1549, the Puritans wrote it off as the product of “a mist of popish superstition and ignorance.” The Prayer Book of 1604, to which the King had proposed they return, was no better: “A multitude of godly and sober persons cannot at all (or very hardly) comply with the use of it.” On that principle (“we don’t like it”), the Puritans and presbyterians proposed that if anyone had any objection to anything in the Prayer Book, it should be removed.
The Bishops responded that since the Puritans had “in times recent” outlawed the whole of the Prayer Book, finding it all objectionable, there would be nothing left to present to the King were they to remove everything anybody objected to.
The Puritans filled page after page with their “Particular Exceptions,” which were linguistic or ceremonial. Many of their minor criticisms, though, harkened back to their theological objections.
As an example, the Prayer Book, during the celebration of the Eucharist, requires the “Priest” to say the words of Absolution. The “Exceptions” call for the removal, here and everywhere else in the Prayer Book, of the word “Priest.” It’s to be replaced by the word “Minister.” This, the Puritans claimed, is only being consistent, since sometimes the Prayer Book uses the word “Bishop,” sometimes “Priest” and sometimes “Minister.” They coyly concluded that this difference “in sundry titles” confused people.
One of the Bishops replied using the words from the Preface of the Anglican Ordinal of 1550: “from the Apostles’ time there have been these three Orders of Ministers in Christ’s Church—Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.” Since the Puritans and presbyterians didn’t accept these ancient Orders or maintain the Apostolic Succession, they would of course be willing to see these distinctions erased. The words would remain unchanged.
For the duration of the King’s writ, from April till July, the Commissioners met, argued and debated the “Exceptions.” Nobody looked at “ancient liturgies.” The Bishops fought every Puritan objection tooth and nail, sometimes defending even punctuation marks.
When the four months ended, the Bishops had allowed none of the Puritan’s “General Exceptions” and most of their “Particular Objections” were refused. Those the Bishops “allowed” were minor: “when anything is read for an epistle which is not in the epistles (but drawn from the Old Testament), instead of “The Epistle is written…” the Minster shall say “For the epistle…"; “in the Marriage Service the words, ‘till death us depart,’ be altered thus, ‘till death us do part.’ ”
The Conference ended and the Bishops reported to the King. Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, was chosen to write a summary of the Conference. He concluded: "We have rejected all changes such as were either of dangerous consequence (as secretly striking at some established doctrine, or laudable practice of the Church of England, or indeed of the whole Catholick Church of Christ) or else of no consequence at all, but utterly frivolous and vain."
The King forwarded the results of the Conference to Parliament, heartily endorsing their conclusions.
The Puritans and presbyterians left Savoy empty-handed. The Puritans left the Church of England, becoming (many different sects of) “Non-conformists,” “Dissenters,” or “Independents.” The presbyterians became Presbyterians.
No comments:
Post a Comment